"...a growing maze of federal rules and regulations implemented by 

 the BLM and restricted access to federal lands to ranchers, loggers 

 and miners, that along with the nonmanagement of wild horses and 

 burros is what triggered the Sagebrush Rebellion." 



ELMER HANSON : I visited Frank Gregg in his office in Washington 



D.C. a year-and-a-half ago. We talked about range improvement. He had 

 money at that time for range improvement which is held up by RARE II 

 studies, and some of that was released last summer. But, we're too late 

 in the season to be effective. The Montana Stockgrowers Association is 96 

 years old. The Montana Stockgrowers Association has believed in the 

 multiple use of public and private lands. They have worked for the good 

 of the industry and public relations with not only consumers but also with 

 other land users and recreation people. The stockmen are soil and water 

 conservationists, and they were probably environmentalists before the word 

 was even phrased. I have lived on the same ranch all my life and we 

 have more fish and big game animals there now than we did when I was a 

 boy. We also have more sportsmen there. Especially fishermen. The 

 Smith River never closes and it's open for fishing the year round, with 

 somebody there pretty near every day fishing. Ten percent of my grazing 

 is on public land. I have been asked to talk about the stockgrowers and 

 the Sagebrush Rebellion, our state convention will be June 5-7, and I 

 know there will be several resolutions introduced on the subject. 



The term Sagebrush Rebellion was really misnamed by the press and 

 it should have been States Rights Legislation. But as Frank Gregg said, 

 the war is over half won and livestock people and public land users of the 

 West really have some victories. One of them was probably having Gregg 

 come to this meeting here today. Two years ago or more, if you had any 

 kind of a land users meeting and you asked government land managers to 

 appear or take part in the program, very seldom could you get one to 

 attend. A lot of times they wouldn't even answer the mail. Now, since 

 this Sagebrush Rebellion has went as far as it has, you can get any land 

 management person to talk to you any place, any time. 



With the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 

 1976, Congress announced it's intention to bureaucratically control public 

 lands. Until this time, the states hoped to someday get rid of their 

 unwanted federal landlords and reclaim the vast percentages of the public 



